Spotlight: Uzcátegui added as assistant conductor

The Spokane Symphony has added an assistant conductor to further outreach efforts and fill in as needed.

Jorgé Uzcátegui conducted the symphony this past October, when the company headed to Moses Lake for a performance at the Wallenstein Theater as part of the Columbia Basin Allied Arts Premier Series.

A pianist, he made his debut with Venezuela’s Simon Bolivar Orchestra at age 14. He has performed with orchestras throughout the Americas and Europe. He won first place in the 2012 International Conducting Competition. He is completing his doctoral studies in orchestral conducting at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he conducts the UCLA Symphony.

As an assistant conductor with the Spokane Symphony – which is a new position – Uzcátegui will work to expand the symphony’s outreach efforts and work an educational liaison with area schools, according to an announcement from the symphony.

If a concert opportunity arises and neither music director Eckart Preu nor resident conductor Morihiko Nakahara is available, Uzcátegui can step in. (Preu also is music director for the Stamford Symphony, in Connecticut, while Nakahara is music director of the South Carolina Philharmonic.) His first turn at the podium is scheduled for Feb. 12, when the symphony will accompany a screening of the Alfred Hitchcock film “Psycho” by performing Bernard Hermann’s classic score.

In the news release, Preu noted he’s looking forward to having a trained ear present during rehearsals to listen for musical nuances and sound balances. “Jorgé will bring exceptional musicality, personality and ideas with him that will benefit the Spokane Symphony,” Preu said in the release.

Photography at WSU

The Washington State University Museum of Art opens a new exhibit on Monday, “Through the Lens, an American Century: Corbis & Vivian Maier.”

The exhibit includes 32 iconic photographs from the Corbis Corp., from the collection of Tony and Leslie Rojas of Seattle. (Corbis, based in Bellevue, is a media licensing company with a collection of more than 100 million images and 800,000 video clips.)

Among the 32 Corbis images that will be displayed include “Migrant Mother” by Dorothea Lange (1936), “The Hindenberg Explosion” (1937), “Muhammad Ali Taunting Sonny Liston” by Donald L. Robinson (1965), and “Marilyn Monroe Filming ‘The Seven Year Itch’ ” by John Randolph Hearst Jr. (1954).

While these are all famous images of major events in American history, Vivian Maier photographed primarily people and architecture in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. It wasn’t until after her death in 2009 that her “street photography” was discovered. In 40 years, she had made more than 150,000 photographs and more than 150 films. WSU will be exhibiting 50 Maier images.

She was the subject of an acclaimed documentary, “Finding Vivian Maier,” which will be screened at 7 p.m. Feb. 12 in the CUB Auditorium. (A pre-screening discussion will begin at 6 p.m. Both events are free.)

“Through the Lens, an American Century” will run through April 3. For details, visit museum.wsu.edu.

Hampton festival line up filled

Meanwhile, across the state line, the University of Idaho’s Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival has finalized its lineup for the Saturday night performance.

Joining Stefon Harris and Dianne Reeves on the bill Feb. 28 are clarinetist and saxophonist Ken Peplowski, trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, saxophonist and composer Tia Fuller and vocalist Ernie Andrews.

Tickets for the festival, which runs Feb. 25-28 in Moscow, are on sale now, with prices ranging from $20 to $50. For a full schedule, visit www.uidaho.edu/jazzfest. For tickets, call (888)-8UIDAHO or visit www.uidaho.edu/ticketoffice.

Cello in the cathedral

Kevin Hekmatpanah, music professor at Gonzaga University and cellist with the Spokane Symphony, will perform today as part of the Mostly Second Sunday Concert Series at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist.

He will be accompanied by pianist Ivana Cojbasic.

Hekmatpanah will play Josef Hayden’s Cello Concerto in C and Camille Saint-Saens’ Concerto for Cello, Max Bruch’s “Kol Nidrei: Adagio on Hebrew Melodies,” and P.I. Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme.

The concert begins at 4 p.m. in the cathedral, 127 E. 12th Ave. Admission is $10 at the door.

More cellos

The Spokane String Quartet will feature two additional cellos during its concert on Jan. 18 at the Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox.

John Marshall and Jeffrey Lastrapes from CELLObration will sit in with violinists Mateusz Wolski and Amanda Howard-Phillips, and violist Jeannette Wee-Yang for Franz Schubert’s String Quintet in C Major. The quartet’s cellist, Helen Byrne, will participate in the first half of the program, “Langsamer Satz” by Anton Webern and the String Quartet No. 23 in F Major of Wolfgang Mozart.

Marshall, who is principal cello with the Spokane Symphony, is the CELLObration founder as well as a professor of cello and chamber music at Eastern Washington University. Lastrapes teaches at Texas Tech University. The Jan. 18 collaboration with the quartet comes as the annual CELLObration gathering of student and professional musicians wraps up with a concert Saturday night in Cheney.

The string quartet concert begins at 3 p.m. Tickets are $20 for adults, $16 for seniors and $12 for students, and are available through the Fox box office, through the quartet’s website – www.spokanestringquartet.com – or through any TicketsWest outlet.

Call for artists

Spokane Arts has issued a call for visual artists to participate in a juried regional show at the Chase Gallery in Spokane City Hall.

The show is open to artists in all media from Eastern Washington, northern Idaho and Western Montana. It will be juried by Ryan Hardesty, curator of art and exhibitions at the WSU Museum of Art, and will run July 1-Sept. 29.

The application deadline has been extended by a week. Entries must be submitted online by 11 p.m. Pacific time Jan. 23 through Café at www.callforentry.com. Details and requirements are available in the Café call posting.